


Alistair plucks a rose in Lothering

by Farashe



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 19:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3181163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Farashe/pseuds/Farashe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short little look at Alistair's thoughts when he plucked that very special rose in Lothering.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alistair plucks a rose in Lothering

Alistair had told her that he needed some air, which he did, but what he meant was that he needed time to process, alone. Arl Eamon might be dying. Duncan was already dead. The Blight was coming here. So much darkness. Alistair didn’t know how he could cope with so much darkness.

Feeling sorry for yourself there, aren’t you? He thought to himself. It’s not like you're the only one suffering, his mind continued to chide. Which was true, but it still hurt to lose so much so quickly. Oh, it hurt. He just kept wishing for something good to happen just to balance things, if only a little. Maker, that wasn’t too much to ask, was it?

An image was conjured in his mind. It was Elissa’s face. He remembered her expression when she first saw him after Ostagar at Flemeth’s hut. She had looked like a drowning woman who had discovered a rope, and Alistair was that rope. He had never been anyone’s rope before much less a beautiful, capable, strong lady-someone’s rope. And really it was the other way around, wasn’t it? She was his rope. The one thing he had left. It seemed the Maker had already answered his prayer. She was his one good thing in the midst of all this loss.

Alistair felt warmth on his cheek and he looked up to see the small Chantry courtyard in which he sat was bathed in sunshine. It wasn’t very robust sunshine, but for a place so close to the oncoming Darkspawn horde, it was very impressive. And with the sunshine he also noticed something else in the courtyard, a rosebush. There were several bushes, all dead, around the courtyard’s edges, but this one wasn’t, quite, dead. In fact, a single bud grew on the dying bush, defying the death around it. That rosebud reminded him so much of his thoughts about Elissa just moments before. Here was beauty among ruin, warmth in the midst of grief, a light in the darkness.

Alistair stood and walked to the bush and gently plucked the rose. He felt a moment of guilt for snatching this piece of beauty for himself, but it also somehow felt right. Such a thing would not last long against the oncoming horde so he would take it away as he helped Elissa build hope through the rest of Ferelden.

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short little thing I wrote forever ago, but I like it. Alistair is basically my favorite character in the whole Dragon Age series so I love trying to figure out what he's thinking about various events. Enjoy!


End file.
